Boot Key Harbor
"Marathon- the Heart of the Florida Keys"

An On-Line Cruising Guide for the Florida Keys & Cuba
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An Easy Way to keep up Electronics

I want to tell you about a really great product, and how to keep all your electronics maintained. As you know, everything in the marine environment here in the Keys goes down the tubes quickly – your electrical connections and electronics rate just behind the varnish in giving up the ghost. Raytheon technicians really perturbed me recently when I called them about a Radar problem I was having. My unit is more than ten years old but still in good condition. Essentially they conveyed their attitude to me that they consider the lifetime of marine electronics to be only 3-5 years, and they should all be replaced at that time. CAN YOU IMAGINE! – replacing all of your onboard electronics every 3-5 years!? They’re nuts! I use a product in a can called Corrosion Block sold at most boating stores. This stuff is great! With the Radar unit, I had rewired a transformer in the CRT they indicated might be a problem, but it didn’t correct it. Then I literally soaked all the electronic circuitry inside the monitor with this Corrosion Block and reinstalled it to test. Rats! Still didn’t work so I immediately shipped it in to Raytheon for repair. Two months later they still hadn’t looked at it, but when they did, they said everything checked out OK, and that there was no problem with it that they could find. What? I got it back and when I unpacked it the Corrosion Block was seeping from the seams of the covers. It had worked! It just takes a while to show up and I shipped it too soon. This isn’t my first experience with this amazing stuff. I just finished my handheld VHF. It would transmit for a few seconds then cut off. I thought what the heck, it’s worth a shot. So I took it apart & inspected it. Everything looked fine. Then I just soaked all the circuitry with this stuff & tried it out. Didn’t work. I let it sit for another 24 hours and PRESTO! The radio works fine. I first became a believer when the 110v motor for an air-conditioning water pump was immersed in salt water. It seized. I took it out and soaked all the windings, shaft and bearings with this stuff. It took 24+ hours to work but the motor started back fine and ran for another year and a half before I replaced it. The Coup De Grace came with one of my medical laser repair courses. These people pay a lot of money to learn how to fix these lasers, and time is limited. One of my lasers went schizophrenic at the last minute during a course – it was electronics. We really didn’t have time to troubleshoot the entire system to fix it, so I soaked ALL the electronics and circuit boards of this laser in Corrosion Block. It was dripping heavily onto the floor below. We waited 10-15 minutes and turned the laser back on, and – THERE WAS LASER LIGHT! Now, every time I have electrical connections or electronics exposed for some reason, I whip out the Corrosion Block and put some on all the connections and circuit boards just as preventive maintenance. I love this stuff! Gregory Absten, Commander